Thursday 6 February 2025, 18:30-21:00 | Evening session with presentations by spatial and technical practitioners

Today, the performance of our buildings is measured by principles permeated with the idea of central heating. Every room in every home must meet the highest efficiency standards. But this approach originated only a century ago, when we obtained seemingly unlimited access to fossil fuels. Holding on to this principle pushes households to make very expensive investments renovating their building shells. Even if the EPC label improves, in many cases energy consumption doesn’t appear to drop much, if at all. This is due to the ‘rebound effect’: households use heat more abundantly when they have a lot of it. 

Proposal: when translating the new European EPBD directive into national and regional regulations, the emphasis will lie rather on fossil-free heating than on (theoretical) building efficiency. This doesn’t mean that there will be less comfort. Architects show that a broad spectrum of building typologies and renovations is possible with passive measures, with both real energy efficiency and improved quality of living. Redesigning those typologies is a crucial tool for rethinking policy frameworks and incentives at the level of building performance. 

Sign up for the session to discuss and sharpen this proposal together. You can also participate in the guided tour (EN) to the exhibition of Operation Energy Neighbourhoods, starting at 17:30.

More info and line-up: https://www.architectureworkroom.eu/en/agenda#event-5679